It has been announced that the anime "Steel Ball Run: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure," based on "Steel Ball Run," the seventh part of Hirohiko Araki's popular manga series "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure," will be exclusively released worldwide on Netflix starting March 19, 2026. The single, 47-minute episode, "1st STAGE," will be streamed. It has also been announced that additional cast members will include Masaaki Mizunaka as Sandman and Kenichirou Matsuda as Pocoroco. The first promotional video has been released, featuring Johnny Joestar, Gyro Zeppeli, Sandman, and Pocoroco.
To commemorate the year 2026 being the Year of the Horse, a campaign will be held from January 1, 2026, in which character smartphone wallpapers (9 types in total) will be distributed at random.
"Steel Ball Run" is set in late 19th century America and tells the story of the first-ever transcontinental horse race in human history (the SBR Race). Johnny Joestar, a former genius jockey who is now partially paralyzed, teams up with the mysterious outlaw Gyro Zeppeli to embark on a grueling adventure (race).
The anime will be directed by Yasuhiro Kimura and Hideya Takahashi, who worked on "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind," with Toshiyuki Kato, who directed "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean," serving as series director. Yasuko Kobayashi, who has worked on all anime series, will be in charge of series composition. It will be produced by David Production. It will be released on Netflix in 2026.
"JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" is a popular manga that began serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump (published by the same publisher) in 1986. It has gained popularity for its epic story that depicts the blood ties and fate of the Joestar family, which begins with the meeting of two boys, Jonathan Joestar and Dio Brando, as well as its unique use of onomatopoeia and impressive standing poses.
The TV anime series "Phantom Blood" and "Battle Tendency" aired from October 2012 to April 2013, "Stardust Crusaders" from April to September 2014 and January to June 2015, "Diamond is Unbreakable" from April to December 2016, "Golden Wind" from October 2018 to July 2019, and "Stone Ocean" from January 2022 to April 2023.
